The ultimate google app solution

[joejoejoe]

Google has refrained from making any appstore apps because they believe that webapps are the way to go. Why make users have to update their applications and waste hard drive space when everything can be done instantly over the web?

This makes perfect sense but the big let down here is that we have nothing native on our phones that connect to google. So Gmail notifications and the such are nonexistent (from a google standpoint, I know there are third party solutions).

Now, the newest developer tools for the AppStore allow developers to put web-browsers in their apps. Why doesn't google make a Gmail app or a Wave app that's nothing more than a google webbrowser? This way they can utilize push to alert us of new messages etc while maintaining their webapp philosophy?

Is it possible Apple is blocking this from happening? Similar to how they stopped google voice from happening on the iphone?

Just thought I would throw it out there. It would definitely clear up a lot of issues I have with getting mail on my phone.

 

[macduke]

Now, the newest developer tools for the AppStore allow developers to put web-browsers in their apps. Why doesn't google make a Gmail app or a Wave app that's nothing more than a google webbrowser? This way they can utilize push to alert us of new messages etc while maintaining their webapp philosophy?

Is it possible Apple is blocking this from happening? Similar to how they stopped google voice from happening on the iphone?.

Because if everyone who uses some form of Google account (probably at least 70-80% of iPhone users) all downloaded the Google push notifications app, it would probably crash all the push servers. Say 80%...that's 40 million iPhones / touches that would be getting anywhere from 10 to 100 notifications a day, depending how busy the person is. That would be crazy.

Besides, Google supports push now. You just have to set it up as an exchange or something...look it up on TUAW. I have MM and gmail and have my gmail forwarded to MM.

 

[joejoejoe]

Because if everyone who uses some form of Google account (probably at least 70-80% of iPhone users) all downloaded the Google push notifications app, it would probably crash all the push servers. Say 80%...that's 40 million iPhones / touches that would be getting anywhere from 10 to 100 notifications a day, depending how busy the person is. That would be crazy.

Besides, Google supports push now. You just have to set it up as an exchange or something...look it up on TUAW. I have MM and gmail and have my gmail forwarded to MM.

I know about google's exchange solution, I use it, and it isn't the best. Having a constant connection to both exchange servers and apple's push servers drains my battery like there's no tomorrow. Also, I have multiple gmail accounts (one personal and one google app account) and can only have push on one of them because the iPhone only supports one exchange account.

And using the exchange solution still forces me to use mail.app which sucks in comparison to the gmail web app.

I see your point about the gmail push notifications crashing apple's servers though.. but how do push intensive apps like pushgmail, gpush, AIM, beejive, etc all accomplish using massive amounts of push notifications among millions of users without overloading the servers?

 

[macduke]

I know about google's exchange solution, I use it, and it isn't the best. Having a constant connection to both exchange servers and apple's push servers drains my battery like there's no tomorrow. Also, I have multiple gmail accounts (one personal and one google app account) and can only have push on one of them because the iPhone only supports one exchange account.

And using the exchange solution still forces me to use mail.app which sucks in comparison to the gmail web app.

I see your point about the gmail push notifications crashing apple's servers though.. but how do push intensive apps like pushgmail, gpush, AIM, beejive, etc all accomplish using massive amounts of push notifications among millions of users without overloading the servers?

Aside from AIM, not as much exposure? Most of the people I know who have iPhones and touches have never heard of many of those apps. An official Google app always gains a lot of attention and downloads.

That sucks about your battery life. I have a 3GS with push notifications on, GPS on, an exchange account for my work, MM for personal, and fetch 30 minutes for school. I think I'm lucky because I rarely run out of battery life during the day, and I play a lot of graphic intensive games like Real Racing, Sandstorm, and Madden. I also use the Safari a lot, but mostly on WIFI.